Rochester Dental Firm Named in Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - An unusual wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in Olmsted County Court against a Rochester dental office.

It essentially accuses the firm of causing a patient’s cancer-related death through an earlier dental procedure.

The lawsuit seeks damages from the 12th St Dental firm and Dr. Christopher Lindquist. The lawsuit says Debra Ryan suffered a dislocated jaw while Lindquist was removing a tooth in March 2014. The St. Charles woman later underwent 5 surgical procedures at Mayo Clinic to repair the injury.

During the final operation, a biopsy detected she had cancer and Ryan underwent treatment. The lawsuit says for a period of time, no cancer was detected but she died from the disease Nov 1, 2015 at the age of 60. The lawsuit says the death was caused in part by the injury because Ryan was not able to eat solid foods and she suffered from a lack of nourishment.

The lawsuit says the “negligence and carelessness” of Lindquist was “the initial contributing factor” to Ryan incurring cancer and the direct cause of her death. It also says the lack of nourishment was a “substantial contributing factor” to Ryan being unable to ward off the reoccurrence of cancer.

The lawsuit, filed by her husband, seeks damages that include more than $600,000 in dental and medical expenses.

Minneapolis attorney Barb Zurek is defending Lindquist. She says they plan to defend the lawsuit all the way to trial, if necessary